The reduction of night skiing hours at Keystone Resort will continue this winter.
Summit Daily reports that lifts at Keystone that are used for night skiing will shut down at 7 p.m. for the 2023-24 season. This is one hour less than when they’ve shut down in the past: 8 p.m. They will only be offering night skiing on Fridays, Saturdays, and a few Sundays, which has been the case since the beginning of the 2020-21 season. Wednesday and Thursday evening skiing ended in 2020 at Keystone. They used to have night skiing seven days a week, but this ended after the 2001-02 season. There will be some weekday evening skiing, but this will only be during the Holiday periods.
Here’s the official night skiing schedule for this upcoming winter from Keystone Resort:
- “November: 23 – 25 (Thanksgiving Thursday – Saturday)
- December: 23 – 31 nightly (Holiday Period Nightly)
- January: 5, 6, 12 – 14, 19, 20, 26, 27 (Friday’s & Saturday’s + New Years & MLK Sunday)
- February: 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 – 18, 23, 24 (Friday’s & Saturday’s + Presidents Weekend Sunday)
- March: 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30 (Friday’s & Saturday’s through March 30)
- Night skiing ends for the season on March 30.”
Nathan Yan, who’s a local resident in the town of Silverthorne, expressed his frustration to Summit Daily.
“It’s very disappointing to see. For me it kind of turns me off to wanting to associate or think of Keystone as my home mountain…This is kind of my turning point, my Roman Empire kind of thing. I feel viscerally that they’ve taken away something that I identified with the local Summit County ski experience.”
Night skiing that ends at seven is a tough sell. Having the lifts shut down at that time would definitely keep me from skiing, as I tend to prefer going to places with more extended night skiing hours. In addition, if you aren’t an Epic Pass holder, it’s less tempting to pay for a night skiing ticket for the reduced time frame. It’s kind of odd that Vail Resorts, which definitely knows about having a competitive advantage, is reducing one of the things that makes Keystone special in a packed Colorado ski industry.
On the other hand, running a mountain like Keystone is complex due to its extensive terrain footprint. This is especially true this upcoming winter with the addition of the Bergman Bowl as a lift-serviced terrain pod. Having night skiing puts more pressure on snowmakers (during the early season) and groomers to get a lot done in a more limited time.
Ultimately, if people voice their displeasure about having limited night skiing at Keystone, a change could happen. Vail Resorts has changed its ways when they’ve been criticized on past issues, so I imagine if enough people voice their displeasure, going back to a larger schedule is possible.
Image Credits: Keystone Resort
